Bachelor of Arts in English

at Brunel University London United Kingdom

Brunel's Business and Management degree course will equip you with a broad knowledge and appreciation of issues faced in the world of business. You’ll gain the analytical, technical and interpersonal skills required to understand, analyse and address the challenges faced by today’s companies.

The components of this degree offer you the widest range of core skills in business and management out of all the pathways. This includes market economies; theoretical and practical characteristics of organisations; various business models and frameworks; coping with future uncertainty, and managing change.

Emphasis on this pathway is on globalisation issues generated by multinational enterprises (MNEs). As they account for over fifty percent of global output, a deeper understanding of the commercial power of MNEs will help you position yourself strategically in a competitive job market.

This pathway will broaden your knowledge of business concepts as you work on real life business issues and live case studies, to develop managerial skills and enhance your career prospects.

You will also learn valuable technical skills along the way including numerical methods and how to use statistical software packages such as SPSS and EXCEL, without the need for A level maths or the overseas equivalent.

The course includes a module on Management Enquiry to help you adapt to university study through active learning sessions on topics such as working in groups, report writing and time management.

Our Business and Management BSc is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), which means you will gain exemptions from some of their professional papers if you wish to undertake further study towards being a chartered management accountant after you graduate.

There is the option to take a year’s work placement between your second and third year. Previous employers have included Adidas, Microsoft, British Airways, PwC and Nissan. This is an excellent opportunity to gain experience and make valuable contacts for your future career. Find out more on our work placement year page.

Take your knowledge of culture and society to the next level and equip yourself with a big range of practical and analytical skills for a changing world with our Anthropology and Sociology BSc.

Anthropology is concerned with contemporary issues such as multiculturalism, identity politics, racism and ethnic nationalism, changing forms of the family, religious conflict, gender, and the political role of culture. It also addresses fundamental questions about human nature, such as: ‘What do we have in common with each other cross-culturally?’ and ‘What makes us different?’

Sociology, its sister subject, looks at the foundations of social life and the big issues in contemporary society such as inequality, racism, globalisation, and migration.

In particular, your sociology studies at Brunel will be closely related to the central and ever-increasing importance of the communications media in our culture, for example, how poverty is portrayed and the powerful influence of celebrity.

Brunel is a great choice for this combined study with lecturers from both subjects producing cutting edge research alongside their teaching, on both global issues and local problems.

This research expertise filters down into what you will learn. In anthropology students have learnt about youth and motorcycles in Rwanda, and in sociology, about cosmetic tourism.

Choose this course and you can do fieldwork on any subject, anywhere in the world, whether it’s learning about refugees in Athens or mother and toddler groups in inner London.

Around half of Brunel anthropology students carry out a placement or fieldwork abroad, in places as wide ranging as India, Nepal, Australia, South Africa, Papua New Guinea and Jamaica.

Recent UK placement destinations include the Royal Anthropological Institute, Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, Amnesty International and the Department of Health.

The Brunel LLB Law with International Arbitration and Commercial Law gives students the opportunity to earn a qualifying law degree with specialist knowledge of international arbitration and commercial law.

Along with the requirements of the traditional LLB degree you’ll learn commercial, international and comparative law and about cross-border transactions and cross-cultural dispute resolution.

We offer two study options. You can choose three years full-time, or four years full-time with a professional placement year between years two and three that will give you hands-on experience working in a legal practice.

All of our students have careers advisers who you can discuss career ideas with and who can offer guidance on placements and further study options throughout your time with us.

Our Law with International Arbitration and Commercial Law LLB undergraduate degree is accredited by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA), meaning that you will gain the necessary knowledge and skills required to go on to be a practising solicitor.  Please note, from October 2019, rather than accrediting LLB Degrees, the Bar Standard Board requires law degrees to cover the seven legal foundation subjects and the skills associated with graduate legal work in order to meet the requirements of the Academic Component of becoming a barrister. Brunel Law School's LLB Degrees fully meet these requirements.

With its foundation of English law and practice and its focus on arbitration and commercial law your degree will stand you in good stead for lucrative cross-border fields of legal practice.

You only have to turn on the news or open a newspaper to see how differently the nations of the world are governed. What is democracy and democratisation? How has US foreign policy changed in the last 20 years? What is globalisation?

Politics is an exciting and dynamic subject, simulating debate and offering insight in how the ever-changing world around us works. It’s also a degree that can demonstrate your intellectual acumen and understanding of world affairs, which will be an asset in so many fields of work.

As well as providing a foundation in the approaches and theories of politics and international relations, through this degree you will develop your understanding of the importance of politics in a globalising and integrating world.

Whether you’re studying modern Africa, imperialism or Trump’s foreign policy, you’ll not just learn about politics, you’ll be analysing politics using the tools of political science and philosophy to help deepen your understanding and critical thinking.

Opt for a placement year and you'll gain work experience that is highly valued by employers. Brunel students have secured placements in the Environmental Audit Committee, the House of Commons, Directorate of Gender Affairs, HM Treasury and the Competition Commission, to name only a few.

You can also opt to take part of your degree abroad in one of our partner universities in Europe, or participate in an exchange programme to China or the USA to study politics in a different part of the world whilst experiencing a new culture.

Brunel is a dynamic university choice for your politics course. You’ll be taught by politics experts who are often called on to comment on radio and television. The Brunel campus has hosted the filming of BBC’s Question Time and is a political hub during local and national elections.

Brunel politics graduates enter diverse careers. Many of our former students go into politics and the civil service and some are currently at GCHQ and military intelligence. Others work in the public and private sector like the NHS, international banks, business consultancy, law, NGOs and the media. Whichever route you chose, an international politics degree with Brunel will set you up for a successful future.

On this Business Computing BSc degree course, you get to specialise in eBusiness, learning about how software and IT systems can support business transactions and drive sales. Through a mixture of theory and real-world practice, you’ll learn how to determine a dynamic mix of processes, which allow information delivery systems and users to carry out business effectively and efficiently. You’ll come to intuitively understand how an organisation’s information systems need to adapt to the changes and developments natural to growth and progress.

In addition to the compulsory business computing content you will learn about the underlying models and latest approaches used by companies in building successful eBusiness platforms.

Our course is designed for flexibility, so if you’re not sure which route you want to go down, you can select modules and specialise gradually during your time with us. You can transfer between Computer Science and Business Computing up to the start of Level 2, then should you wish, you can choose a specialism up to the start of Level 3.

We know that when you graduate, you’ll be working on large projects. That’s why one third of each year of our programmes is project-based. On Levels 1 and 2, you’ll build a software solution in a team, and in your final year you’ll carry out an individual project. You’ll also have the opportunity to showcase your projects at the annual Made in Brunel (Software Innovation) event, with awards presented by the likes of Cisco, Sky and Xerox.

As part of your degree course, you’ll have the chance to take a year-long work placement between your second year and third year. We’ll support you in finding that all-important paid professional experience, in the UK or abroad. The feedback we’ve received is that those who have taken a placement are much more likely to find a job for which their degree was a formal requirement as it gives you a competitive advantage. Recent graduates have gone on to work for well-known names such as Accenture, Toshiba, Microsoft, British Airways, O2, and Barclays.

Our programmes are accredited by the British Computer Society, the Chartered Institute for IT, for the purposes of fully meeting the academic requirement for registration as a Chartered IT Professional (CITP). The accreditation also allows you to apply for professional membership of the BCS after you have successfully completed your degree. 

The department has been awarded an Athena SWAN Bronze, recognising our dedication to the advancement of gender equality in STEM subjects. We now have an ongoing three-year action plan to further implement strategies and improve our practices. As part of this endeavour, Brunel’s Women in Engineering and Computing mentoring scheme provides our female students with invaluable help and support from the industry.

Opt for a one-year work placement while you study to gain real-world technical and soft skills which will set you apart from the competition after you graduate from your Computer Science degree.

• All of our undergraduate computing courses come with the option of undertaking a year’s placement out in the industry. This means that you have the opportunity to experience a real working environment and develop your softer skills like presenting, negotiating and working to a specific brief and tight deadlines.
• A dedicated placement tutor from the Professional Development Centre will work with you to help secure your work placement, which could be in market, product or research development areas. Previous students have taken their placement year in companies such as Microsoft, BMW, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, and Xerox.

This course will help you to develop your creative writing skills and focus on how they relate to games design and game play. You’ll learn about the application of traditional story and narrative design and how it applies to games design and gameplay.

Your learning will come through lectures, workshops, seminars, play sessions and tutorials. You’ll also use the online forum to discuss, share and develop your knowledge. You’ll gain confidence in sharing your ideas, giving and receiving feedback and working individually as well as in a multi-disciplinary team.

The teaching team are experts in nurturing games talent and you will benefit from their insight into the industry. You will be introduced to ideas at the forefront of the discipline as well as sharing their knowledge and understanding of professional practice. This will help to keep you up-to-date with industry developments and show you how the skills you learn on this course are applicable to the world of work.

Of course the best teachers of writing are writers and Creative Writing at Brunel is taught by successful, published writers, many of whom have international reputations. You will draw on their experience across a range of genres and you will have the opportunity to study Creative Writing to a high level.  You will develop your knowledge, understanding, and analytical and creative skills through the analysis, interpretation and creation of literary texts.

All games students will have 24-hour access to the games lab, where high spec PCs are available for you to work on and play games. You will also use the Design room, where an impressive collection of board games is available for you to learn and understand the principles of games design. This room also serves as a wonderful, collaborative space where you can play and generate ideas, work, relax and have fun.

You’ll finish this course with a skillset that will allow you to develop a game from scratch and be ready to work and thrive in the games industry.

Storytelling is part of every culture and reveals much about a person’s lived experience, values and aspirations within a given time. If reading is a pleasure and creative writing very much a part of you, then an English degree with creative writing might appeal.

If you’re ready to explore more widely, think more deeply and consider how you, as a reader, are placed in relation to a text and how that affects your interpretation, you’ve come to the right place.

Brunel offers one of the most highly regarded creative writing courses in the UK, with many staff members active as novelists, writers for performance, or as cultural critics.Through them you will learn and practice the fundamentals of writing in a variety of forms including poetry and film.

After a first year of introductory writing modules with options in literature to develop your critical reading, your exploration in English and creative writing is very much down to your own interests.

In years two and three a wealth of optional modules await you, covering every period and genre in literature from Shakespeare to Austen, comedy to horror and world literature, alongside further writing options in journalism and modern fiction.

Throughout your course you will be encouraged to express your own thoughts and creativity in your coursework and seminars, which will help you to grow as a critic and writer.

English with Creative Writing BA will equip you with personal skills employers’ prize in graduates – exceptional written and verbal communication and the ability to work collaboratively in teams. At Brunel you will be able to develop these in abundance.

Opt for a placement year and you will gain real-world work experience while you study which will further increase your attractiveness to employers when you graduate.

Outside of your classroom, you can look forward to events and activities organised by the Brunel Centre for Contemporary Writing, including the annual Hillingdon Literary Festival: a free weekend of literary performances from internationally renowned authors, writing workshops and lively debates, right here on campus.

What is the social and cultural impact of media communications in today’s world? How do communication and information media actually work and what are their importance to our society?

This course enjoys a very close relationship with sociology at Brunel and combines the theoretical elements of sociology with the practical elements of media studies. You’ll focus on all aspects of society: its personal, social and cultural dimensions.

Studying communications and media at Brunel is not just limited to the classroom. You’ll have the opportunity to broaden your mind by going on field trips and joining film sessions, where you’ll learn about cameras lighting and editing. You’ll be able to attend optional company visits, for example IMG studios, where you’ll receive a tour of the studios.

On this course you’ll have the chance to make your own films in groups. You’ll develop your skills in our media services suite which has industry-standard facilities. You’ll be taught about the software Final Cut Pro and how to use different types of Canon cameras. You’ll experiment with different lighting styles and practise sound editing techniques. This practical work will equip you with the skills you’ll need for a media related career or for working in the field of production.

You’ll also be able to take your learning outside the classroom – on field trips and company visits. Previous students have toured the IMG studious right here in Uxbridge.

If you choose to go on a placement, you’ll benefit form Brunel’s contacts and location. Examples of recent student placements have been in advertising, digital marketing and public relations in organisations such as Cartoon Network, IMG Media, Sweet Images and the Walt Disney Company.

Design at Brunel is all about realising fantastic ideas in the real world. Our Product Design Engineering BSc degree is for creative thinkers who are also comfortable with mathematics and who enjoy deeper analysis of functional and technical design challenges, principally focused on industrially-manufactured products. The course spans design and engineering, meaning you can develop products that both look good and work well.

There is a lot of project-based learning to test your skills and you’ll see the outcome of your design from concept to making the actual product. This means you’ll be able to build a great portfolio of your best-quality projects, academic and industry briefs, and case studies, during your studies.

You’ll have workshop training and will use industry-standard equipment and software to develop quality hands-on skills to become a maker. Independent access is available to modern facilities that include dedicated design studios, digital sketching, extensive prototyping workshops, and electronics and digital fabrication labs. The practical knowledge you gain is transferable to industry and provides a head start for your future career as a designer and design making in the modern world.

Our product design engineering course is accredited by the Institution of Engineering Designers (IED) and can be studied full-time over three years, or four years with a placement year.

The placement year helps you to prepare for the world of work and you’ll have a year’s worth of invaluable professional experience when you graduate. Our students have worked in both small innovation start-ups and multinational organisations such as Dyson, Jaguar Land Rover, Philips, Procter & Gamble, and Reckitt Benckiser. 

Our students have the opportunity to add another dimension to their university experience by spending a term or a year in one of our partner universities via our exchange programme: Politecnico di Milano in Italy; Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands, San Francisco State University in USA and Institut Superieur de Design, ISD Bubika in France.

The main aim of this MSc course is to provide a more general MSc programme for Civil Engineering students and engineering professionals who wish to enhance their skills which covers all main sub-disciplines of Civil Engineering. The course MSc Civil Engineering is designed to include subjects from across the major sub-disciplines of Civil Engineering and equip our students with holistic knowledge and experience in Civil Engineering.

From the perspective of the needs of industry and government, such graduates with a broader understanding of Civil Engineering problems would be able to contribute to global challenges that require more holistic knowledge such as fulfilling UN Sustainable Development Goals (https://sdgs.un.org/goals) and addressing climate emergency. The structure of the programme includes seven compulsory modules and seven optional modules, two of which must be taken. A range of compulsory and optional modules are provided from all Civil Engineering sub-disciplines such as Structural Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Water and Hydraulic Engineering and Project and Infrastructure Management.

Students will access our technical laboratory facilities in various fields of Structural, Geotechnical and Hydraulic Engineering during the delivery of the modules and for their MSc dissertations. The latest industry-standard engineering software packages are available for students to use in the purpose-built computer laboratories which can be also used for their dissertation works.

The aims of this MSc course are:

• Offer postgraduate education in Civil Engineering with a broad knowledge/experience from all major sub-disciplines within Civil Engineering
• Provide advanced design capabilities and required versatilities for contributing to the most complicated contemporary Civil Engineering tasks in industry

Provide a solid pathway for graduates towards their continuing professional development and potential progression to the membership/chartership of appropriate institutions such as the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) and The Chartered Institution of Water and Environment Management (CIWEM).